Halfway there

The True Patriot Love expedition is setting out to raise awareness for Canadian soldiers injured at war — and inspire anyone suffering from similar mental and physical scars as they trek to Everest. Read more blogs from the series here.

The path from Lobuche into Gorak Shep traverses an uneven, Martian landscape of rock and dust. No plants anywhere — not even the dry tundra that was the hallmark of the trek at Pheriche. In a valley carved out by an ancient ice field we trace the edge of a glacial river. Gorak Shep, the last small town before Everest Base Camp, is just a few buildings standing lonely in a bleak landscape. The big mountain looms large over the town. The Sherpas stayed in Gorak Shep to set the evening’s camp while the rest of us marched on toward Base Camp. From that point forward there was no more vegetation. Just piles of rocks as far as the eye can see—the view broken only by small glacial pools and crevasses. Only then could we see Everest’s massive glacier, and soon we walked along it, among what appeared to be jagged icebergs poking through the warlike rubble.

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This was the Khumbu Icefall. It’s instantly recognizable as the treacherous initial approach up Everest’s Western Cwm, the much-traveled south-side climbing route to Everest’s summit. The Icefall’s massive seracs and signature ladder-laden crevasses are now much less dangerous due to the efforts of the Nepalese “ice doctors.” We could see orange and green igloo-shaped tents encamped for an autumn summit attempt. One of our climbing Sherpas told me the tents belonged to Japanese and Korean teams. They face daunting odds. It’s been two years since someone tried to summit Everest at this time of year. When they do there are usually consequences, the least of which is severe frostbite.

It was surreal, to stand in Everest’s Base Camp. This was our expedition’s first major goal. We had arrived at the base of the world’s tallest mountain after seven hours of scrambling over rocks. We were at 5,300 meters, an altitude that pushed our acclimatization and tested the limits for many members of our team. We’d reached the journey’s halfway point, and many were realizing that getting to the climb was harder than anticipated. I could see it in many of the faces. Then we noticed the evening winds were picking. The temperature was dropping to its overnight low of -20 degrees Celsius. We turned away from Base Camp and trudged back along the path we’d come, accompanied by the feeling we were heading into tougher days, and the realization that the climb we still face may be tougher than we expected.